Perhaps the CGI-porn industry should follow the lead of the toy gun manufacturers and give their CGI renditions of minors bright orange … um … noses to indicate that they are not actual “children”.
Nice cites, JRDelirious, and they reflect the proposition being presented here.
Perhaps a parallel might be drawn. There is a foreign movie called Ginostra involving FBI agents pursuing the Mob to the island of Ginostra, off Sicily. It includes a scene in which a boy, Ettore Greco, played by Mattia de Martino, aims a gun at mobsters pursuing him and his mother.
Now, in real life, pointing a gun at someone constitutes assault with a deadly weapon. Instructing a child to do so constitutes a crime variously described but New York’s “Endangering the Welfare of a Child” statute (Sec. 260.10 P.L.) probably will give the idea.
Okay, is it a crime for a director to instruct a child portraying a role to play a scene in which he points a gun at someone? If Ginostra had been filmed in New York, would director Manuel Pradal have been guilty of endangering the welfare of young Mattia by having him play that scene? If Cartooniverse were the cameraman for that scene, would he have been legally required to step in and charge the director with a criminal offense, and call the police to stop the shooting?
I think the answer is laughable. Under any reasonable interpretation of the law, there was no criminal intent nor was there any damage to young Mattia’s moral state from playing that role.
Likewise, a child portraying a victim of sexual abuse is quite well aware that the adult actor, whom he probably considers a friend and co-worker, is going to be doing something that if done in real life with serious intent, would be a violation of his personal space and dignity, but they’re playing roles. My guess is that any director or actor preparing to film a sexually suggestive scene with a child will take the time to prepare the child for what is about to happen, walking through the script line by line, to make sure that there is no harm or fear in the child from playing the scene.
Is this making any sense to anyone but me?
A better question is, is this not making sense to anyone but Cartooniverse?
Hear, hear. You’ve got a consenting(*) minor who’s been coached on exactly what to expect, while her parents and various other people are observing and ready to stop it the moment anything goes wrong. Even if it’s all an elaborate cover story for Bigname Actor and a minor to have creepy public sex with each other, it’s nowhere near abuse.
Now if only the law could accomodate the fact that the words “yes” and “no” have meaning even when they’re spoken by young people, I wouldn’t have needed that asterisk.
Personally, I disagree with the idea that a 14-year-old is a “child”.
Depends on what the scene is. If it is faked to look like something is happening when nothing is (easily done with the proper camera angles) it might be okay. If it is a real action, probably not. Playing a role does not make it any less real, especially when a kid has to do it several times in front of lots of people. I’ve heard directors on commentary tracks talk about how embarassing it was for two kids who were friends and who had acted together in a show for years to kiss - and not a hot kiss either. When my daughter was a vegetarian, she had to eat lobster on camera. She agreed to do it, and the AD was real good about cutting fast so she could spit it out.
Maybe some kids could handle it fine, but I’d hate to think what the impact on others would be.
So, is hot kissing in the “bad zone”? If you’re trying to entice a young girl through kissing, even though there is no groping, fondling, or grinding, can that be considered illegal?
To clarify, I’m referring to “real life” kissing. I get the whole acting thing.
Well, I hate to ask you to think about it, but what do you think the impact might be?
Would they be struck down by fatal embarrassment like those kids on the commentary track, or might today’s medical science be able to treat a severe case of embarrassment before it becomes malignant? 
A vegetarian eating fish is going against her principles for a role… hardly comparable to another minor doing something she (and her parents) have no objection to, but which is merely controversial.
I was one of those kids. I was 12, and I was supposed to kiss a girl on the lips, closed mouth (no, it’s not listed on IMDB 
). I was extremely embarassed about doing so. I’m not aware of any subconcious trauma. In fact, I’m pretty sure I was over it in about 5 minutes. I don’t believe we need to protect children from embarassment. If so, my parents were quite cruel to me because of all of the photos they’d trot out when I’d get a new girlfriend.
My point about this is that being on a set does not separate an action from a person. The things I mentioned were minor, and no problem at all. If a teeny thing like kissing causes embarrassment, how about a big thing like a sex scene.
I’d question that a kid has no objection to something like this. Perhaps if the kid had done it in real life, she wouldn’t, but I’m assuming a standard issue inexperienced kid.
I’m not sure about the parents. The new SAG rules try to help the parents resist directors. The parents of the kids who dies in the Vic Morrow incident were there, after all. I’d rather be safe and say no.
It might cause even more embarrassment. So what? Embarrassment isn’t fatal, and they’ll get over it in a few hours, if not minutes. They’re not being forced into anything; if they don’t want to do it, they can leave and look for a role that doesn’t pose such a risk of catching cooties.
I was embarrassed the first time I sang karaoke. I’ll bet most actors were embarrassed the first time they got on stage, and the first time they appeared nude or in a sex scene, even as adults, but they manage to get along just fine.
Back when I was a standard issue inexperienced kid, I would’ve jumped at an opportunity like this. That inexperience was something I wanted to shed, as do a lot of teenagers.
Er…
Morrow died on the set of Twilight Zone: The Movie while holding two small children (Myca Dinh Le and Renee Shin-Yi Chen). A helicopter being used on the set spun out of control and crashed, decapitating him and one of the children with its blades. (Wikipedia)
You seem to think something really dangerous and harmful might happen, although you can’t come up with anything specific besides embarrassment… but comparing it to a helicopter decapitation? What on earth do you think is involved in a Hollywood sex scene?